Vonda N. McIntyre Metaphase

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on Starfarer had been waiting for hours for this conference. It was not fair
to ask them to wait any longer.
Zev and Victoria were already there, waiting for her. With her hands shoved
deep in the pockets of her jeans, Victoria stood outside the circle, gazing
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toward Nemo's crater.
Zev lounged in the auxiliary couch to the left of JDA seat. He grinned at
J.D.
"Nemo reminds me of home," Zev said.
J.D. stroked the young diver's arm fondly. His fur, so delicate it was nearly
invisible against his mahogany skin, felt warm and soft.
"Nerno's not like anything back in Puget Sound," J.D. said. "Not anything
like."
"I know. But he reminds me anyway. He doesn't look like he's been swimming in
a long time."
"Nemo can't go swimming," J.D. said, a little impatiently. Imagine a being the
size of Nemo, the size of the planetoid, swimming anywhere.
"Not now, " Zev said. "But critters like Nemo don't always look the same."
Zev was right. Nemo could have gone through more than one form. Maybe that was
why Europa called Nemo a squidmoth. J.D. added Zev's observation to the list
of subjects she wanted to discuss with the alien being.
Through her link, J.D. reached out tentatively to Nemo.
"Nemo?" she asked. "I'm going to talk to everybody back on board Starfarer.
You can join in, if you like."
She waited. She received no reply.
I know how Nemo feels, J.D. said to herself. I'd like to sit quietly all alone
for a while and think about everything that's just happened. No.
First I'd like to get some sleep.
The image of Gerald Hemminge appeared nearby. The assistant chancellor of
Starfarer also acted as the alien contact department's liaison to the
starship.
METAPHASE 67
"Are you ready?" he asked. "Everyone's anxious to start."
"In a minute, Gerald, thank you," J.D. said. "We're still getting ourselves
together."
"Very well." As he turned, he faded out.
Stephen Thomas entered and crossed the transparent floor of the circle.
He had changed to a Starfarer T-shirt and a clean pair of long pants with the
Starfarer logo on the thigh, unusually subdued clothes for Stephen
Thomas. But he no longer looked as bedraggled as when he came out of
Nerno's crater.
He stopped beside Victoria, but he did not speak and he did not touch her. He
stared out the transparent side of the observers' circle, his gaze on Nerno's
spiky curtains of silk. The severity of his hair, pulled tight and tied at the
back of his neck, made him cold, and aloof.
J.D. wondered what he was thinking about. The alien museum, on a harsh little
airless world not too different from this one, fusing and destroying itself as
he watched? The collapse of the genetics department around him? The changing
virus turning him into a diver? No . . . none of those, of course. He was
thinking about Feral, wondering how the enthusiastic young journalist would
have reacted to Nemo. He was mourning the delight Feral would never feel.
Mourning Feral.
Then Victoria briefly touched her younger partner's hand, and they turned to
join the circle. Stephen Thomas looked straight at J.D., completely
expressionless, and she had no idea what he was thinking.
She glanced away, embarrassed to be staring at him, and blinked fast to clear
her eyes of tears.
Victoria took her place in the seat across from J.D. Stephen Thomas sat at
J.D.'s right.
Satoshi came in a moment later. He always moved so smoothly, so athletically:
he nonchalantly carried two brimful mugs of tea. He handed one to J.D.
"Careful. It's hot."
"Thanks," she said. Trying not to move the cup, she leaned forward and took a
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sip so she would not spill it.
68 VONDA N. McINTYRE
It was hot. She had to slurp it so she would not burn her tongue.
"You looked like you could use it," he said. He sat in his couch one place to
Zev's left.
Now the members of the alien contact department were all in their places,
quartering the observers' circle like the cardinal points of a compass. Zev
broke the pattern, but J.D. was glad beyond words that he had joined the
expedition, and grateful that Victoria had not objected when he accompanied
her on board the Chi.
Zev enfolded her hand with his long webbed fingers. In the sea, he would have
touched her more closely. He was leaming land manners. J.D. was leaming that
on land, land manners were not always preferable. Even when they were more
appropriate.
He cared more about her than about her success with Nemo, she thought. His [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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